Sardines
by Child of Loki
Summary: A silly story that was meant to be short but is getting long...finished! I'm Finished!
1. Chapter 1

**disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters...**

**Author's note: I was going to try to put this all in one chapter, but I got distracted, and here is what is done. If it doesn't make sense, I'm sorry, and stick around for later chapters. Eventually this should make some sort of sense...I hope. Or not.**

"I'm bored," Abby whined. She felt rather light-headed, too. They all did. They also all shrugged it off as doing too much work. Gibbs had sent them all down to help Abby process the evidence from their latest case, and there was a lot. It was the entire contents of a dentist's office, where their victim was found mysteriously dead in a dentist's chair. After several wisecracks about dental care and the bedside manner of dentists, they had gotten down to business processing the evidence. They were currently sitting around a table covered with dental supplies and equipment, not doing much work at all.

"Me, too," agreed Kate. "But what are we supposed to do about it? Gibbs will kill us if we don't get this evidence processed."

"Yeah," they all agreed, looking disappointed. They sat in silence for a little while, just staring at the table strewn with various "torture instruments" as Tony referred to them. He was so bored. He was also feeling very flighty. Maybe he was just hungry. It had been a while since lunch, but not too long, even for him. He just couldn't concentrate on the task at hand. His mind began to wander.

"I got it!" Tony shouted, startling the others out of their own dazed wanderings of mind.

"You know what killed the petty officer?" McGee asked, surprised and bewildered by Tony's exclamation. If Tony had, then McGee felt that he definitely had missed something. He just couldn't seem to focus on the case at all.

'No, Probie!" Tony snapped, and then began laughing. "Cards...we can play cards!"

"Yeah, Tony," Abby agreed as she began laughing as well. "Only, we don't have any!"

"That's okay," Tony replied. "I've got some in my desk upstairs."

"Except that's where Gibbs probably is," Kate pointed out. She could feel a headache coming on. She paused for a moment, and then started laughing hysterically.

"What?" Tony asked her, as she seemed to be directing her laughter towards him. Her laughter must have been contagious, because he began chuckling, too.

"I can just picture you trying to sneak around Gibbs," she supplied in between fits of laughter. "You'd so be busted!"

McGee and Abby began laughing as well as they conjured up the mental image of Tony crawling around the office on his hands and knees, hiding behind desks, making his way to where he kept his cards, only to be busted by Gibbs as he pulled the deck of cards out of the desk drawer.

"I'm insulted at your lack of confidence in my covert ops skills," he pretended to be hurt but couldn't help laughing with the others. When they failed to cease their merriment at his expense, he really did become indignant. "I bet I could beat you all at evading detection."

His tone caused the others to stop laughing, except for Kate who only laughed harder and more sardonically than before. He glared at her hatefully, finally putting an end to her mocking fun. "Is that a challenge?" she asked trying to make a serious face. She couldn't, and again began laughing. She couldn't figure out what was so funny, only that it _was_.

"Maybe it is a challenge!" Tony snapped at her. Her laughter was beginning to give him a headache. She continued to laugh, pausing only to catch her breath. McGee and Abby exchanged a look, a silent comment on the interplay between Tony and Kate, and then proceeded to burst out laughing as well.

"Wait! I have an idea," Kate offered bemusedly, after calming down slightly. "I'll close my eyes and count to thirty. Then I'll see if I can find you. That'll be a good test of your skills!"

Tony rolled his eyes at her. Why was she behaving so childishly? And why was he tempted by her offer? And why was it so difficult to think straight?

"What? Is the fearless Anthony Dinozzo afraid that he'll lose?" Kate teased him horribly. "I never thought I'd see the day when you'd turn down a proposition from a woman!"

Abby and McGee chortled at the comment, trying to suppress the laughter for Tony's sake. Tony couldn't take it anymore. That was an insult to his manhood. He'd show Kate. "Fine," he agreed. "I accept your challenge."

Kate closed her eyes and began counting between giggles. She found that closing her eyes made her slightly dizzy and it was difficult to remember what number came after twelve, but it was still all very amusing to her.


	2. Chapter 2

**disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters...**

**Author's note: I was afraid that this wouldn't make any sense. I'm glad that you all were able to pick up on where I was going with this. Hopefully-wait, no-This _will_ be a story that I finish! So, the randomness continues...**

The challenge inevitably turned into an outright game of Hide and Seek.

And about 47 minutes later...

"Ha! I win!" Abby shouted, bobbing up and down after she made it the "Safety" first. Unfortunately, her excitement blinded her to the fact that Kate was running at a rather quick pace towards her and "safety," with Tony directly behind her. They all collided and fell into a jumble on the floor, laughing hysterically.

When they had untangled themselves and lay on the floor trying to catch their breath, McGee came out from his hiding place and loped over to collapse next to the rest. He was feeling really exhausted.

"Let's do it again!" Abby squealed with excitement as she wiggled around where she lay staring at the ceiling.

"There aren't anymore places to hide," complained McGee. "We used them all already. Besides, I'm tired."

"Oh, can it, McGee!" Tony jumped on the chance to yell at the man that so often got on his nerves.

"No. McGee's right," Abby sighed. She wanted to have more fun, especially since she had completely forgotten about the work that they were all supposed to be doing and was quickly becoming bored. She had suffered spells of ADD before, but never like this.

"Abby, have you ever noticed how dirty the ceiling of your lab is?" came a distant-sounding voice from where Kate was lying on the floor. She pointed up with one hand towards the subject of her consideration, and becoming dizzy from the perspective, quickly lowered it.

"O-kay," said Tony, noticing the strangeness of Kate's comment, but not paying enough attention to realize the very odd turn in her character.

"No, really," she insisted. "Look a that spot right there." She pointed again, better prepared for the strange sensation it relayed through her synapses. "It almost looks like...blood, doesn't it? Old and rust colored..."

"I don't see it," Tony replied.

"Me, neither," conferred McGee, who was now becoming interested in their conversation again, despite being shut down by Tony earlier.

"It's right there!" Kate said more insistently.

"I _still_ don't see it," Tony replied again. Abby giggled to herself over the hilarity of the situation that was not obvious to anyone else. Kate moved closer to where Tony lay on the floor by scooting herself with her feet as to not have to get up. From an angle closer to his own, she was better able to point out the spot that was of so much interest to her. "Do you see it now?" She asked, her patience growing thin, and her head pounding angrily at her for the concentration she placed on trying to focus on a single train of thought.

"No. Sorry," Tony offered.

"It's right there! In front of your face!" She snapped exasperatedly. "I give up!" She began to scoot across the floor to where had been previously lying and examining the ceiling.

"Oh! I got it!" shouted Tony. "I see it. It's right there," he said while pointing wildly at the ceiling.

"_Now_ you get it!" shouted Kate. Then she began laughing again. "Boy, you sure _are_ _slow_!"

Tony's excitement abandoned him and he frowned at her comment. Then something occurred to him and he smiled fiendishly. "You know, Kate, it kind of look like your-_hmph_!" he was cut off by her jumping on him to shut him up.

As the two struggled for control, McGee added," It _does_ kind of look like a..."

"Stop it Guys!" Abby yelled, causing them all to halt their current activities and trains of thought. She was itching to do something fun, or anything for that matter. "Let's play again!"

"But we used up all the good places," McGee reiterated their previous conclusion. Abby sighed disappointedly. "I know. I know. You're right."

A few moments passed in silence as they all tried to focus their minds, and failed.

"I know!" Tony exclaimed from where Kate was still sitting on his stomach, restraining one of his arms with her hands and pinning the other to the floor with her foot. "We can play _Sardines_!"


	3. Chapter 3

**disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters...**

**Author's Note: (to** **Cerasi J) I wrote this before I read your note, and the treatment of the character who asks the very same question that you did is in no way meant to reflect negatively upon you. That being said, I am glad you are enjoying the story and hope that you continue to do so. As I hope others also get some enjoyment out of it, but if not, at least it was fun to write!**

"What is _Sardines_?" Kate asked, as Abby jumped to her feet and clapped her hands exclaiming how much she liked to play _Sardines_.

"Jeez, Kate. Did you _even_ have a childhood?" Tony asked sarcastically. Kate hopped up and slammed herself down on his chest, letting his cry of pain be her response.

"It's a form of _Hide and Seek_," McGee explained since nobody else seemed willing or able to respond at the moment. "One person, who's 'it' goes and hides. Then everyone else tries to find them."

"Well, that's stupid!" Kate interrupted. "Of course, it would _have_ to be, considering Tony came up with the idea!"

"Let the man finish, Kate," Tony retorted, upsetting her hold on him and pushing her to the floor before standing up and brushing himself off.

"Uh...umm...where was I?" McGee asked, finding it difficult to get a grasp what he had just been explaining less than ten seconds ago.

"Everyone else goes and looks for whoever's it!" Abby supplied, still bobbing up and down with excitement.

"Uh...right," said McGee. "And when someone finds the person who's it, they hide with him or her. The last person to find them, loses."

"Okay. That kind of makes sense," Kate said. "Except for it has the same flaw. We ran out of places to hide."

"Only in the lab," said Tony suggestively. They all knew where he was going before he went there. And despite their hesitant looks, he did go there. "If we used the _whole_ building..."

"But won't Gibbs find out?" McGee asked warily. He may not have had most of his usual faculties in order, but he still retained a healthy fear of Gibbs.

"What are ya, chicken, Probie?" Tony asked accusatorily, moving closer to the man to stare him down. McGee had had enough of Tony's disrespect and refused to back down this time. "No. I am not chicken, Tony," he said firmly.

"Are to," Tony reverted to the ever-clever childhood comeback.

McGee responded the only way he could. "Am not!"

"Are to!"

"Am Not!"

"ARE TO!"

"AM NOT!"

The two men moved even closer together until tempers flared and it turned into a shoving match as well as a test of verbal skills. Abby quickly grew tired of watching two grown men act like five year olds, while Kate just looked on laughing. Abby walked up to them, shoved them apart and to the side, and then proceeded to walk between them.

"I'm it!" she shouted as she sprinted to the elevator. "Give me five minutes!" She pushed the button and got in the elevator.

"Where is she going?" Kate asked.

"Looks like she's going down," Tony and McGee said together, and then proceeded to glare at each other.

"Hey! I heard that! That's _cheating_! Now I'm going to have to backtrack!" Abby shouted at them as the elevator doors closed and she disappeared.

"Give her five minutes," Kate told Tony as he tried to set his watch. The buttons were small and he was having a hard time pushing the correct ones at the correct time. He snapped at Kate's obnoxiously obvious statement. "I know, Kate. What do you think I'm trying to do?"

"Sorry!" she said sarcastically. "I thought you were at least smart enough to set a watch."

Her scathing remark pissed him off, so he quickly figured it out and set the alarm using more concentration than he knew he was capable of.

"You know what, Kate?" he asked, the anger growing in his voice. "I'm getting sick of you always putting me down!"

She didn't know what to say. He had never told her off before. He had always taken the abuse with friendly good-natured-ness. He started moving towards her and she edged backwards until he had her backed against a wall. She had never seen him act this way before, at least towards her. It scared her a little, and then it began to amuse her and she started laughing.

"Maybe I should teach you a lesson," he said in a serious tone. However, the mischievous light in his eyes betrayed him to her. She darted away from him and he began to chase her around the lab.

McGee slumped down to the floor, then laid down and fell unconscious.

As with many games of chase, Tony and Kate's ended up in a stalemate. It was one of the sort where the prey/chasee is on one side of a table, and the predator/chaser is on the other. Kate would move to her right and Tony would move to his left. She would move to her left and he would move tohis right. The stalemate lasted several seconds, which seems like an eternity during a game of chase. Finally, Tony decided to jump over the table. He knocked it over with all of the dental supplies turned unprocessed evidence, and fell to the floor. Kate stopped to laugh at him but was cut short when he jumped back up and began chasing her around the lab again...


	4. Chapter 4

**disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its chracters...**

**Author's note: This isn't the greatest chapter, but this isn't the greatest story so...Anyway, I think I will be able to wrap this up in about 1 or 2 more chapters. YAY!**

Abby swung the door open with an audible creak of its hinges. The smell of antiseptic and death washed over her in a wave of repulsive odor as she entered the room. However, she often dove into this particular sea of overwhelming olfactory sensation, so the onslaught of smells didn't slow her down a bit. Besides, she was on a mission. She began to walk the perimeter of the morgue, craning her neck to investigate its upper reaches and crouching down to seek out its lower limits. She even pulled some coolers open and peered inside. She decided against that particular course of action since most of them were occupied. She wasn't really sure that she wanted any of the others to try and squeeze in there with her either.

"Are you looking for something in particular, Abigail?" Ducky asked from where he was standing over a corpse laid out on one of the cold metal tables. He was currently attempting to remove the dead man's stomach contents. Mr. Palmer was standing on the opposing side of the table and attempting to assist Dr. Mallard by holding out a beaker to catch the mostly liquid stomach contents.

"No... not really," Abby responded, still walking around the morgue hunting for a good hiding spot. Satisfied but not pleased that the morgue contained no sufficient place to serve her purpose, she walked up to look over Ducky's shoulder.

"What happened to him?" she asked as she bounced up and down with energy. "Root Canal gone wrong?" she added, playfully winking at Mr. Palmer. He smiled back at her awkwardly.

"I'm afraid not, young Abigail," Ducky answered her question. "Nothing so obvious, at least."

She gave him a slightly puzzled look. She really didn't feel like thinking at the moment. She was starting to hate standing still, too. Thankfully, Mr. Palmer came to her rescue by butting in. "Dr. Mallard thinks that he was poisoned."

"Actually, we're removing the man's stomach contents as we speak, if you'd like to..." he let himself trail off as he heard the morgue door swing shut. He checked over his shoulder to confirm that she had run off.

"That was curious," he said to Mr. Palmer just before he heard the door creak open again. He turned around scalpel in hand to find Abby's head poked through the partially opened door.

"Hey, if McGee, Tony or Kate come down, please don't tell them I was here," she said so quickly as to be almost incomprehensible, adding "Thanks, Ducky!" before disappearing again. Ducky shook his head in bemused puzzlement and then returned to the task at hand.

Back in the lab...(for lack of a better section break)

Tony had finally caught Kate and they were struggling when his watch alarm went off. They stopped their almost-wrestling match as they now struggled to figure out why his watch was beeping at them. After almost a minute, they finally realized its message.

"Abby!" they said in unison. Kate ran for the elevator laughing. Tony sighed as he looked around the lab to find McGee asleep on the floor. "I guess it's up to me to take care of the Probie, as usual," he griped to himself.

"McGee!" he shouted. There was no response. He nudged him with his foot, probably a little harder than necessary. The sleeping man started awake.

"What!" he asked sharply, in more of a reaction than question. Tony sniggered at the more-than-usually bewildered McGee.

"It's time to find Abby," Tony informed him


	5. Chapter 5

**disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters...**

**Author's notes: ALMOST DONE! This is the second to last chapter! Just one little chapter to go! I'm so close to actually finsihing one! YAY! There was something else I wanted to say, but...I don't seem to remember now.**

Tony decided to take the stairs since Kate had already commandeered the elevator. He knew that she had headed upstairs because of Abby's comment about backtracking. He decided to go downstairs because he figured Abby would have decided not to backtrack because she had told them she would. Unless, she had planned on them thinking that she wouldn't backtrack because of the comment. Tony's head began aching so he just headed downstairs and hoped for the best.

He entered the morgue to find Ducky and Mr. Palmer working on the victim of their latest case. He scanned the room. There was no obvious sign of Abby, or the others, for that matter.

"Can I help you, Mr. Dinozzo?" Ducky asked, his back still turned to the man he was addressing.

"Umm...no," Tony responded confounded. "How'd you-"

"-know it was you?" Ducky finished his sentence for him. "You have a unique way of entering the morgue, Tony. First you open the door forcefully, almost like Jethro does..." Tony smiled at the comparison to his boss and mentor. "...Then you seem to change your mind and ease off the pressure. It's almost like you're having second thoughts about entering. It creates a most unique sound effect."

Tony had to admit that Ducky had him pegged on that one. The thought that he might not be able to handle what he found laid out on Ducky's table always made him hesitate mid-entry. He decided to change the subject as Ducky continued to explain how he identified Tony's presence by smell as well as sound. Apparently, Ducky thought Tony's cologne and aftershave to be of substandard quality.

"I hope that you at least gave him some Novocain first, Ducky," he said grimacing at the half-dissected body.

"Oh, Tony. Not you, too," Ducky responded to the distasteful joke, reminiscent of the one Abby had cracked to him earlier. He then tried to fill Tony in on the victim's death, thinking that Gibbs may have sent him, not to report information back, for Gibbs liked to get it directly from Ducky, but as a sign that Ducky should expedite the autopsy. "He seems to have been poisoned. It's not from heavy metals. There are no striations on the fingernails...Unless it was given to him all in one dose. It must have been fairly rapid. However, there are no needle marks on the skin, and his stomach didn't contain much besides acid. So I'm inclined to believe that it was a gaseous substance that precipitated his untimely demise."

Tony had completely zoned out while Ducky went through his theory. Then something that Ducky said clicked in his brain.

"Who else?" he asked the man in blood stained blue scrubs. Ducky only gave him a confused look. "You said 'Not you, too.' Who else has been down here?"

He shrugged at the progressively more and more agitated man. Tony was getting excited. He had almost forgotten why he had come down to the morgue, but now he remembered. He could feel that he was close. Abby had been here. He could tell by the forced nonchalant look on Ducky's face, and Mr. Palmer's face didn't hide it at all. Maybe Abby was still here. "Is Abby here?" he asked the doctor scrutinizingly.

"No, Tony. Abigail is not here," Ducky said confidently. No lie there. However, Tony could tell there was more to the statement. "But she was here!" he said excitedly as he ran out of the morgue.

Sometime later...(again with the lack of knowledge over section breaks)

Kate swore to herself as she ran down the stairs, carrying an unwanted, and rather bulky file. She had decided to peruse the office for any sign of Abby. She figured the spunky Goth would be brave enough to weather the risk of a down-force gale of Gibbs' temper. She never got to find out before Gibbs caught her snooping around their desks. He gave her one of those 'I-know-you're-doing-something-I-didn't-tell-you-to-do-and-I'm-going-to-find-out-what-it-is-and-I'm-going-to-find-out-what-it-is-and-you're-going-to-be-in-nig-trouble' looks. Thankfully, she was near her own desk. She pretended to grab a file that she needed. She held it up to indicate what she had been doing, praying that he couldn't read the name on the film from across the room. He nodded at her and with a sigh of relief she got out of there as fast as she could without looking suspicious.

So now she was carrying that stupid bulky file around. She entered the morgue, quickly scanning the room before approaching Ducky. She could already tell that the others weren't there.

"Is that file for me, Caitlin?" he asked, looking up from where he had been examining lung tissue with Mr. Palmer's assistance. He frowned when he realized that she looked as out-of-it as Abby and Tony had. He suspected that Gibbs had been working them awfully hard.

"Umm...No. This is...umm...nothing important," she couldn't even think up a proper excuse over the pounding of her head. She just wanted to find the others before they all got in big trouble with Gibbs. Things didn't seem so funny now that she had almost been busted by the boss. "Ducky, have you seen Abby, Tony, or McGee?"

The consternation in her voice convinced him to be forthcoming with her, as much as the fact that she looked like she was at the end of her rope. "Actually, both Abigail and Mr. Dinozzo stopped by earlier... Rather strange behavior, the both of them."

"Dammit!" Kate swore as she raced out of the morgue and up the stairs. So Abby _had_ decided to backtrack herself. And Tony had probably realized that fact after stopping in the morgue. He had gone there first, so he most likely had already located Abby. And McGee! Maybe she still could beat him! She started to take the stairs to at a time. He had been asleep on the floor when she left the lab. Maybe Tony just left him there. _No_, he wouldn't pass up the chance to pester McGee. And McGee knew Abby pretty well. There was some connection between them that Kate didn't understand. He would be able to find her first. Kate slowed down again. So this was it; she had probably lost their game of Sardines. But she could still end it before Gibbs killed them all.

She had already checked the office near their desks the first time she was up there, so when she opened the door from the stairwell a crack and saw that the coast was clear, she headed for the few hallways that compartmentalized the floor. She walked stealthily down the halls, more to listen for Gibbs than to track down Abby and the others. She was warily looking around the next corner when she heard a 'clunk' followed by what seemed to be..._giggles_. Giggles! Abby! She traced its origin to a closet that she had just passed, well, not passed as much as crept by with her back against in traditional spy-novel fashion. She put an ear up to the door and heard giggles and muffled voices. She flung the door open, and in her excitement forgot about her previous stealth mode. "I got you!" she shouted.

She found that all three of her playmates had squeezed into the closet. Tony was bent down in a position between a crouch and fully standing up, trying not to hit his head on a fire extinguisher. McGee was twisted away from Kate to face the back of the closet, with is hands above his head trying to prevent toilet paper and cleaning supplies from falling on his head. Abby was the only one that looked comfortable in the confined space, although not very composed with her hands clamped over her mouth to suppress laughter, and her face turning red at the effort. At the sight of Kate, she released herself and began laughing hysterically. McGee, who was surprised by the door being suddenly flung open, failed to prevent all of the items above his head from finally falling. There was slight clatter as the objects rained down on his head, and a roll of toilet paper gently coasted across the floor to rest against the other side of the hall. Tony tried to straighten himself up, hitting his head on the fire extinguisher. It didn't affect him much because he was too excited at seeing Kate. "You lose!" he announced smiling smugly.

"Lose what!" came a gruff voice from to the right of Kate. The door swung wider open out of her hand to reveal a rather pissed Gibbs, with just a hint of confusion on his face. "What the HELL IS GOING ON HERE? I just went to check on my agents' progress to find no one processing the evidence that I told them to!" he roared.

They all froze for a few seconds in fear as Gibbs bellowed at them. Then they filed out of the closet to form a line in the hall, their heads hung low. They really didn't know what Gibbs would do to them. They only know that it wouldn't be good, and that they may not all survive.

Gibbs cell phone rang, and the quivering line of people couldn't help but sigh with relief. He shot them a glare that would kill weaker people, before answering his phone.

"Gibbs."

"Hey, Ducky. What's up?"

"What!"

"You aren't serious?"

"I see."

"Okay."

"Thanks."

He closed his phone and placed it back in his pocket. Then he turned his attention back to his people. He surveyed the four usually competent agents that he commanded. Abby was bobbing up and down, beginning to giggle again. McGee looked like he was about to pass out where he stood, wobbling back and forth. Kate's eyes were bugging out of her head and she was wringing her hands nervously. Tony had one hand on his head and the other on Kate's shoulder trying to steady himself, or the rest of the world, Gibbs couldn't tell. Gibbs thought that Ducky must be right on this one. Why else would his people be behaving like this? He knew they were too afraid to consciously disobey him.

"You're all going to the hospital to get checked out," he informed the four haggard looking people who were barely standing in front of him. Those of them, who could manage, looked at him with confusion. The rest stared into space.

"Now!" he hollered, and shuffled them all off to the emergency room.


	6. Chapter 6

**disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or its characters...**

**Author's Note: I finished it! (does a dance) I had fun. I hope that you did, too. Even if the characters weren't in character, etc. I have an excuse (other than the crappy writing skills)...**

The next day...

"The seals were faulty," Abby announced to the team of agents gathered around her lab. She enlarged the images on her computer screen. Tony tilted his head but was still unable to interpret what he was looking at. "There really should be a recall. I mean, a lot of people could have, _could_ still die." She paused for a second as a thought occurred to her. "Or at least suffer a severe case of the giggles."

"But you're sure that's what killed the petty officer?" Gibbs asked one more time, just to be sure. HE highly doubted that any death wasn't a result of another person's malice.

"Uh-huh," Abby answered in the affirmative. "These tanks were being stored in the closet of the operatory where he was found. Apparently, the doctor gave him a shot of Novocain and left to see other patients. The concentration of Nitric Oxide was so high that twenty minutes was enough to render the petty officer unconscious, and kill him. It was lucky for everyone else that the tanks had only been delivered that morning. Not to mention how lucky we were. A few more hours' exposure would have knocked us out for good. Talk about dying from hysterics..."

"Thank you, Abby I get the picture," Gibbs cut her off. He surveyed the agents that he had almost lost in the most ridiculous way he could never have imagined. McGee and Kate looked at him nervously. They were still embarrassed by their laughing gas induced insanity. Tony only smiled.

"You know what this means," he said smugly.

"No I don't. What does it mean, Dinozzo?" Gibbs said curtly, knowing some stupid comment was soon to follow.

"_Sardines _saved the day," Tony informed them, still smiling. "And who's idea was that?" he paused dramatically, waiting for the credit he deserved. None came. "I believe that it was _mine_. That's right. I saved all our asses. Like Abby said, if we hadn't left the lab, we'd all be dead right now. It was all thanks to-OWW! _Boss!_" Tony's self-proclamation of grandeur was cut short by a slap to the back of the head from Gibbs' firm hand. Tony shot the others a 'what-did-I-do?' look as Kate and Gibbs rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Case closed, Boss?" McGee asked timidly.

"Not until you all finish processing the evidence," he told them matter-of-factly. They all turned to look at him with wide eyes. Kate made the mistake of being the one to object. "But he was poisoned accidentally by Nitric Oxide gas. We know what hap...pened..." she trailed off as she was given an intense Gibbsian glare.

"I gave you an order and I expect it to be completed," he said before taking a sip of coffee.

"But Boss," complained Tony. "We only didn't finish it because we were hopped-up on laughing gas." It was his turn to receive the glare. "Unintentionally, of course. _Unintentionally_ hopped-up on laughing gas," he tried to save himself, but the glare failed to fade away.

"Which is no excuse for not following orders!" he snapped at them all. They all knew he cared about their well-being. He _had_ ordered them to the hospital after all. But they also knew that he cared more about having people to follow his orders. If they weren't going to obey him and do _his_ every bidding, then they might as well be dead for as much use they would be to him.

"I want this done by the end of the day," he shouted at them as he left the lab. The elevator doors closed on a very satisfied Gibbs sipping coffee from a Styrofoam cup.

The fours agents left in the lab begrudgingly set to work. This was their punishment for letting themselves goof-off for a few hours, even if it was against their own free will.

"Hey, it could be worse," Kate said trying to cheer up her co-workers turned fellow slaves.

"How?" McGee asked, thoroughly depressed.

"He _could've_ killed us," Kate said, slipping a dental pick into a plastic bag.

"True," Abby conceded from where she sat leaning over the table, tapping metal instruments together. "But I'd rather be dead than this bored!"

"I got an idea," Tony said. They all turned to look at him warily. "We could play a game of _Sardines_"! He had to duck as an array of dental tools, pencils, and pads of paper came flying through where his head had been.

They all laughed as they tried to complete their task, but not as much as they as the day before.

END

**Author's Final Note: I never named the petty officer/victim, probably because I'm lazy. Also, I am not sure what the real effects of Nitric Oxide poisoning are (or even that I spelled it right), and how much would be needed to poison that many people. However, I do know that anything can be poisonous, it just depends upon the amount.**


End file.
